How NYPD Thwarts Terrorist Attacks

There are a lot of kooky things happening in New York City these days, and they could get kookier or more dangerous after the next mayoral election, but there is one thing they’re doing right. There hasn’t been a terrorist attack in that city since 9/11/01. It isn’t just dumb luck keeping the city safe.

Now we know why New York City has avoided another terror attack: The police there treat radical mosques as the terror enterprises they are and investigate accordingly.

The New York Police Department uses pro-active counterterror tactics, while the FBI’s approach is reactive. Guess which one has a better record preventing terror attacks?

NYPD has disrupted a whopping 16 major terror plots since Manhattan was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. The department’s intelligence unit has foiled attacks on the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York City subway system, New York Stock Exchange, Manhattan and Bronx synagogues, the Federal Reserve Bank and returning U.S. military service members, among other targets.

The FBI’s success? Not so good. Since 9/11, the federal agency has missed the Boston bombings and the Fort Hood massacre, among other jihadi attacks.

We knew the CIA-trained NYPD was good. But we didn’t know how good until now.

According to the Associated Press, which has obtained secret police documents, the NYPD has been labeling entire radical mosques as “terrorism organizations,” a designation that allows detectives to use informants to record violent sermons and spy on mosque clerics suspected of inciting jihad or recruiting terrorists. The tactic also makes anyone attending the mosques fair game for surveillance.

Read the whole thing. Unfortunately, the FBI disagrees with the NYPD’s tactics. I guess the Boston Marathon bombers and Nidal Hasan were happy about that.